A LEADING exercise and nutrition tutor at University College Chester is calling on teenagers to leap out of bed and get down to the gym as part of a national campaign against couch potatoes.

Dr Kevin Sykes, director for the centre of exercise and nutrition science at the Parkgate Road, Chester campus, is working to devise a governmental strategy to tackle teenage obesity.

He believes Britain's teenagers are not far behind their American counterparts when it comes to the weight stakes following a rise in deep vein thrombosis (DVT) cases.

Dr Sykes has been working with the Government for two years and is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Working Group on Obesity.

A regular gym visitor, he is also a keynote speaker within the Westminster Diet & Health Forum, the National Obesity Forum and is an adviser to Euroaction, a large-scale European heart disease prevention programme.

Dr Sykes says a formal strategy to tackle the nation's obesity is still in its early stages but says controversial ideas are already being suggested.

These include placing cigarette pack-style warnings on fatty foods.

Another includes an MOT fitness test which could reward fit people with tax reductions.

A more radical idea, nicknamed VAT on Fat, is to increase the price of fatty foods which would make them less attractive to buy.

Such a move could be necessary to convince Britain's teenagers who would not take notice of a 'boring' Government report.

Dr Sykes' efforts are backed by Professor Paul Edwards, a consultant vascular surgeon at the Countess of Chester Hospital, who has witnessed a rise in DVT among Cheshire's teenagers.

'Young children are spontaneously active, delight in physical activity and play and have boundless energy,' said Dr Sykes.

'However, by the time the teenage years arrive many have adopted very different attitudes and habits.

'A study in Glasgow showed that adolescents spent less than one hour per day in any sort of physical activity.

'In boys, activity levels were fairly high up to around 14 whilst in girls this peaked at around 12 years of age. Poor nutrition, in terms of high-calorie fast food and drink and this lack of exercise has led to the generation of couch potatoes.

'The percentage of overweight kids has more than doubled over the past two decades.'

Professor Paul Edwards said: 'The dramatic rise we are seeing in the incidence of DVT in children and teenagers is very worrying.

'This is no doubt due to sedentary lifestyles, poor eating habits and increased levels of obesity and cigarette smoking prevalent amongst the youth of today.

'If this scenario continues, not only will cases of DVT continue to rise but we will most likely see a large and significant increase in diabetes, coronary heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, gallstones from fatty diets and obesity and osteoarthritis from increased weight.' A new course was launched at University College Chester last year to help the NHS cut the number of heart deaths.

The college was the first in Britain to launch an MSc degree in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation. The course was the brain child of Dr Kevin Sykes.